Bound to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 137: The First Battle

ARIA POV

The Shadow Lord fortress exploded as my earth magic tore through its base, but something was wrong.

There were no screams. No sounds of Shadow Lords dying. Just silence.

"It’s too easy," I called out to Queen Seraphina, who was floating above me with her vampire speed. "This should be harder."

"I know," she answered, landing beside me with worry in her ancient eyes. "My scouts said this place was filled with Shadow Lords yesterday. Where are they?"

Around us, our supernatural union was doing exactly what we’d planned. Dragon-bonded Jaxon was breathing fire at the remaining walls. Lucien was leading a group of werewolves through the rubble, looking for survivors. Even some fae fighters had joined us, using their magic to bind any Shadow Lords we might find.

But we weren’t finding any.

"Aria!" Lucien’s voice was sharp with concern. "Over here!"

I ran toward him, my heart already sinking. When I saw what he’d found, I understood why the castle had been so easy to destroy.

Bodies. Dozens of them. But not Shadow Lord forms.

Human bodies. Werewolf forms. Even some vampire bodies.

"They’re all dead," Lucien said quietly. "And they’ve been dead for days."

"I don’t understand," I said, kneeling beside one of the beasts. He was young, maybe eighteen. Around my age. "Who are these people?"

Queen Seraphina appeared beside us, her face pale. "They’re the missing ones," she said. "Pack members who disappeared over the past few weeks. Vampires who went missing from my world. We thought the Shadow Lords had taken them prisoner."

"They did take them prisoner," Jaxon said, landing close and folding his dragon wings. "But not to keep them alive."

I touched the dead werewolf’s forehead, trying to use my Earth Guardian skills to see what had happened to him. The vision that came made me stumble backward in fear.

"They drained them," I whispered. "The Shadow Lords drained their life energy to power something. Something big."

"Power what?" Lucien asked.

Before I could answer, the ground beneath us started to shake. Not like an earthquake. Like something huge was moving underground.

"Everyone out!" I shouted. "Now!"

But it was too late. The earth cracked open in a perfect circle around us, trapping our entire union inside what was suddenly revealed to be a giant pit.

"Welcome, little Earth Guardian," a voice said from above us.

I looked up and saw him. The Devourer. The boss of the Shadow Lords, floating in the air with wings made of pure darkness.

"You walked right into our trap," he said with pleasure. "Just like we knew you would."

"This whole fortress was bait," Queen Seraphina realized aloud. "They wanted us to attack it."

"Of course," the Devourer said. "Did you really think we would leave our most important base undefended? We’ve been planning this for months."

More Shadow Lords appeared around the edge of the pit. Hundreds of them. All looking down at us like we were animals in a cage.

"The life energy we drained from your precious missing pack members powered the trap runes," the Devourer explained. "Every step you took damaged the ground beneath you. Every spell you cast made the jail stronger."

I felt sick. Those people had died to make a trap for us. And we’d walked right into it.

"What do you want?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"You, of course," the Devourer said. "The last Earth Guardian. Once we drain your power, we’ll have enough energy to wake the Prisoner and begin the realm merger."

"The realm merger?" Jaxon asked.

"Oh yes, dragon boy. We’re going to smash all the supernatural worlds together into one giant prison dimension. Werewolves, vampires, fae, dragons—all under our power. One country, one ruler. Us."

The Shadow Lords around the pit began singing in a language that hurt my ears. Dark energy started running down the walls toward us.

"Aria," Lucien said quickly, "can your earth magic get us out of here?"

I pressed my hands against the ground, trying to call on the strength that had always answered me before. But nothing happened.

"I can’t," I said, fear rising in my throat. "The trap is blocking my connection to the earth."

"What about your vampire speed?" Jaxon asked Queen Seraphina.

She tried to leap up the walls, but an unseen barrier knocked her back down. "Magic barriers," she said sadly. "We’re completely trapped."

The dark force was getting closer. I could feel it trying to latch onto my life force, to drain me the same way they’d drained all those innocent people.

"There has to be something we can do," I said desperately.

But even as I said it, I knew we were in real trouble. We’d brought our strongest fighters, our best magic users, our supernatural alliance that was meant to be unstoppable.

And we’d been outplayed completely.

"Actually," a familiar voice said from the darkness, "there is something you can do."

A figure stepped out of the dark at the bottom of the pit. Someone I recognized but couldn’t quite believe I was seeing.

"Elder Malin?" I whispered.

But his eyes were glowing green. Shadow Lord green.

"Hello, dear Aria," he said with a smile that was both his and not his. "Surprise."

"You’re possessed," Lucien said, his voice breaking.

"Possessed?" Elder Malin laughed. "Oh, my dear boy. I was never possessed. I’ve been working with the Shadow Lords from the very beginning."

The words hit me like a physical blow. Elder Malin. The pack elder who had led me, who had helped me understand my powers, who had told me about the prophecy.

He’d been a rogue all along.

"Everything you told me about being an Earth Guardian," I said slowly. "Was any of it true?"

"Oh, it was all true," he said. "I needed you to grow your powers so we could harvest them properly. You can’t drain magic from someone who doesn’t know how to use it."

I felt like I was going to be sick. "You’ve been planning this from the beginning. My eighteenth birthday, meeting the twins, everything."

"Everything," Elder Malin confirmed. "Even your special mate bond with Lucien. Do you want to know a secret, dear Aria?"

I didn’t want to know. I was afraid of what he was going to say.

"That mate bond?" Elder Malin smiled bitterly. "It’s fake. We made it with shadow magic to make you easier to control. You and Lucien aren’t really fated mates at all."

Lucien made a sound like he’d been punched in the stomach.

"You’re lying," I said, but my voice was shaking.

"Am I?" Elder Malin asked. "Haven’t you ever thought why the bond felt different from what other mated pairs described? Haven’t you ever questioned why it happened so neatly right when we needed you to cooperate?"

The dark energy reached us, and I felt my strength starting to drain away.

But the worst part wasn’t the joy being stolen from me.

The worst part was the look of doubt I saw coming into Lucien’s eyes.

Because deep down, I was starting to wonder if Elder Malin was telling the truth.

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